THE LADY OF THE LAKE. CANTO FIFTH. The Combat. I. FAIR AIR as the earliest beam of eastern light, When first, by the bewilder'd pilgrim spied, It smiles upon the dreary brow of night, And silvers o'er the torrent's foaming tide, And lights the fearful path on mountain side ;Fair as that beam, although the fairest far, Giving to horror grace, to danger pride, Shine martial Faith, and Courtesy's bright star, Through all the wreckful storms that cloud the brow of War. II. That early beam, so fair and sheen, Was twinkling through the hazel screen, Commanding the rich scenes beneath, The windings of the Forth and Teith, *The Scottish Highlander calls himself Gael, or Ga ul, and terms the Lowlanders, Sassenach, or Saxons. And all the vales between that lie, Till Stirling's turrets melt in sky; Assistance from the hand to gain ; So tangled oft, that, bursting through, Each hawthorn shed her showers of dew,That diamond dew, so pure and clear, It rivals all but Beauty's tear! III. At length they came where, stern and steep, The hill sinks down upon the deep. Here Vennachar in silver flows, There, ridge on ridge, Benledi rose ; Ever the hollow path twined on, Beneath steep bank and threatening stone; An hundred men might hold the post With hardihood against a host. The rugged mountain's scanty cloak Was dwarfish shrubs of birch and oak, With shingles bare, and cliffs between, But where the lake slept deep and still, The guide, abating of his pace, Led slowly through the pass's jaws, And ask'd Fitz-James, by what strange cause He sought these wilds? traversed by few, Without a pass from Roderick Dhu. IV. "Brave Gael, my pass, in danger tried, Hangs in my belt, and by my side; Yet, sooth to tell," the Saxon said, "I dream'd not now to claim its aid. When here, but three days since, I came, All seem'd as peaceful and as still,` Nor soon expected back from war. "A warrior thou, and ask me why !— The lazy hours of peaceful day; |